Waterproof Bug (or bus)

Can't move it? Afraid it will be flooded? Then bag it.

Big tarp. A real one; heavy waterproof canvas.

Figure out where you want the vehicle to be placed. Plan for your anchors(!) (Yes, anchors; if it floods, the vehicle is going to float, so plan accordingly.)

Lay out your tarp. Roll the vehilce ONTO the tarp. Then wrap it up.

Be careful with the corners; close the tarp like a Christmas package, bringing the open end of the corner-folds UP. Us lots of line (rope, for non-sailors). You want the tarp lashed fast to itself, so as to form the bag, and once bagged, lashed to the vehicle so the open ends of the tarp will stay well above the line of the windows. (If the flooding is deep enough, the vehicle will float when the water gets about to the tops of the hub cabs. With regard to your anchors, make sure you take the anticipated DEPTH of flooding into account. Properly moored, the bagged vehicle will rise WITH the waters, settle back down as they receed.)

Last step is to lash another, smaller tarp over the folded, lashed, open-end of the first, so as to form a 'sky' or roof that will shed rain.

Does it work? Damn betcha. (This method is how you get your vehicle across rivers too deep to ford.)

I thought everyone knew about bagging your bug (or at least, all old sailors). Recently I've gotten a couple of woeful messages from VW owners who obviously did NOT know how to protect their project from flooding.

Now you know. Good luck with it.

-Bob Hoover

Reply to
Bob Hoover
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...................Once it's bagged, how do you put in the river?........and then get it out again?

Reply to
Tim Rogers

Simple. You drive your baja into the middle of the river, attach a rope to the rear bumper and the other end to the bag, and then drive your baja out of the river, pulling your bagged bug all the way across. ;-)

Reply to
Shaggie

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You use a ramp, which you usually have to create (dig, dig, dig). The land-ward edge of the tarp is laid down above the level of the water, the other end is held above the surface -- literally laid ON the surface -- and the vehicle is driven onto the tarp. As the vehicle advances, the sides & ends are held above the level of the water.

This is a common method of fording for irregular forces & light recon units. If you dig around you can probably track down one of several training films depicting the procedure. The Brits have a good one showing a Land Rover being bagged across a river. There's another showing one of those Chenowith dune buggies being bagged & floated. The Brit film is a good How-to, the American film is mostly rah-rah bullshit, probably used for recruiting or fund-raising; it leaves out a lot of details (and makes the procedure look easier than it is).

But the method also provides good flood protection for a project that can not be driven to higher ground, which was the reason for posting.

-Bob Hoover

Reply to
Bob Hoover

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